Sabah Rubber Industry Board records RM173.9 mln profit last year

KOTA KINABALU: The performance of the Sabah Rubber Industry Board (LIGS) has been improving constantly from 2011 up till now.

Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Yahya Hussin said that the total accumulated loss from 2010, which had amounted to RM72,142,011, has been successfully restored.

This was due to the fact that LIGS had managed to accumulate a total profit of RM173,970,559 last year, he explained.

“Furthermore, the loan of RM60 million obtained from Sabah Development Bank in 2011, has been settled last year with an interest of RM11 million,” he said. Apart from that, LIGS is currently planning to plant new trees as an addition to the current available space, which is 10,000 acres in size as the country moves towards year 2020.

Yahya disclosed that the said plan will involve over 3,000 smallholders under the NKEA programme and is aimed at improving the lives of the smallholders.

“Also, the price of rubber in Sabah has increased from RM4.70 per kilogram in October 2016 to RM9.68 per kilogram in January 2017.

“This has increased the income of the smallholders in Sabah and it is all due to the Getah Standard Malaysia (SMR 20),” Yahya added.

Even though the price of rubber had decreased to RM6 in June 2017, Yahya still hopes that the rubber price at the international level will increase to at least RM8 at the end of this year. Yahya’s speech was read by his assistant minister Datuk Hj Sairin Karno at the LIGS Rubber Industry Board 2017 Annual Dinner at Hakka Hall on Friday.